Volume 38, Number 19 · November 21, 1991
Man of the Year
By Garry Wills
BOOKS REVIEWED IN THIS ESSAY
Circa 1492: Art in the Age of Exploration 1991–January, 12, 1992
an exhibition at the National Gallery, Washington, DC, October 12,
Circa 1492: Art in the Age of Exploration
catalog of the exhibition, edited by Jay A. Levensen
Yale University Press/National Gallery of Art, 671 pp., $59.95
The Worlds of Christopher Columbus
by William D. Phillips Jr., by Carla Rahn Phillips
Cambridge University Press
Renaissance Characters
edited by Eugenio Garin, translated by Lydia G. Cochrane
University of Chicago Press, 294 pp., $32.50
In Search of Columbus: The Sources for the First Voyage
by David Henige
University of Arizona Press, 359 pp., $24.95
The 'Libro de las profecias' of Christopher Columbus
by Delno C. West, by August Kling
University of Florida Press, 274 pp., $49.95
Columbus
by Felipe Fernández-Armesto
Oxford University Press, 218 pp., $22.95
Inventing the Flat Earth: Columbus and Modern Historians
by Jeffrey Burton Russell
Praeger, 117 pp., $12.95
1492
by Jacques Attali
Fayard, 367 pp., 120Fr.
Out of Italy: 1450–1650
by Fernand Braudel, translated by Sián Reynolds
Flammarion/distributed by Abbeville Press, 245 pp., $50.00
Marvelous Possessions: The Wonder of the New World
by Stephen Greenblatt
University of Chicago Press, 202 pp., $24.95
Columbus: The Great Adventure: His Life, His Times, and His Voyages
by Paolo Emilio Taviani, translated by Luciano F. Farina, by Marc A. Beckwith
Orion Books, 273 pp., $20.00
Why Mona Lisa Smiles and Other Tales by Vasari
by Paul Barolsky
Pennsylvania State University Press, 128 pp., $22.50
My desk has long been groaning under piles of Columbus books, many more than can be dealt with here. One refrain in them is also a lament. William and Carla Phillips, in The Worlds of Christopher Columbus, after studying 250 United States history textbooks, argue that 'the United States seems to have lost, rather than gained, knowledge of Columbus since 1892.' Jeffrey Burton Russell says, in Inventing the Flat Earth, that people cling to myths about Columbus rather than face 'the conceptual shock of realizing that our closest held convictions are precarious.' David Henige says that some are unwilling to question the prefabricated hero because 'a serene but unexamined belief in the actuality of the recorded past is necessary to an acceptable present.' There is a positive need not to know about Columbus—including a need not to know how little there is to know.
Review, 5717 words
To read the full text of this piece, please choose one of the following options:
|
If you are already a subscriber to the Review's electronic edition, please sign in: |
To subscribe to the electronic edition, please press the button below. |
To purchase access to this article for $3, please press the button below. |